“Committed to the Flames: The History and Rituals of a Secret Masonic Rite” by Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris

“Committed to the Flames: The History and Rituals of a Secret Masonic Rite”

by Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris

In 1826 Robert Benjamin Folger, a recent graduate of medical school and a new Master Mason, filled a book with the enciphered Craft rituals of the Rectified Scottish Rite, a high-grade revision of the rite of Strict Observance. well-known in Europe but unknown in the UNited States. His introduction directed that the rituals be “committed to the Flames” upon his death. FOrtunately for Masonic historians instructions were not followed. Folger went on to prepare at least two other books of rituals. A man of tremendous talents, strong passions, and curious contradictions, Folger was twice expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of New York and participated in at least six clandestine Supreme Councils, but died a Master Mason in good standing. The book gives full transcriptions of all og his rituals, an analysis of their place in Masonry and biographies of Folger and his major contemporaries in his Masonic work.